A new Chinese billionaire emerges, weekly

May 28, 2015

New research from UBS and PricewaterhouseCoopers has found that a new Chinese billionaire has been created almost every week so far in 2015. In 2014, there were approximately 200 Chinese billionaires, compared to 570 in the United States, reports CNN.

However, China’s billionaires are younger and most of them are self-made — around 25 percent of Asia’s billionaires grew up in poverty, compared to 8 percent among U.S. billionaires. These new Chinese billionaires are making their money primarily in the real estate, technology, healthcare, and consumer industries. What’s more, the majority of this new wealth has formed over the last 15 years.

“We are very optimistic that in the next five to 10 years [the number of] Asian billionaires will surpass the U.S, because of the high-growth opportunities in this part of the world,” said Francis Liu, a managing director at UBS Wealth Management.

Many of these Chinese billionaires are increasingly giving back through donations to charitable causes. Older generations are more likely to give to education and healthcare, while the younger billionaires are more likely to give to social issues, such as supporting underprivileged communities in China. Jack Ma, formerly China’s richest man and the founder of Alibaba, recently created a charitable trust to back philanthropic causes ranging from environmental to cultural issues.